posted at 5:52 pm on August 1, 2008 by Allahpundit

Yeah, why waste that sort of rhetoric on them? Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned this week, it’s that white liberals are … slow to perceive racial allusions.

“I was in union, Missouri which is 98 percent white – a rural, conservative. and what I said was what I think everybody knows, which is that I don’t look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates. But that I think that what people are really concerned about, what they’re looking for is fundamental change on the economy, things that are going to help their families live out the American dream.

‘There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race in this. What this has become I think is a typical pattern from the McCain campaign, whether it’s Paris Hilton or Britney or this phoney allegation that I wouldn’t visit troops. They seem to be focused on a negative campaign what I think our campaign wants to do is focus on the issues that matter to American families.”

By “nobody,” he means “nobody except my own chief strategist.” But never mind that. Two points. First, what is he aiming at with the reference to Union’s demography? That he wouldn’t think to mention race in front of white Democrats because they won’t appreciate his point or that there’s simply not enough political benefit in raising it with a white audience? If the latter, it shows you how seriously he takes the great national conversation he thinks we should be having, consistent as it is with the fact that that big race speech of his from a few months ago would never have been delivered had the Wright scandal not dropped a political bomb in his lap that he had to defuse. That is to say, Obama’s rhetoric on this subject is almost always transparently self-serving, and while normally I wouldn’t begrudge a politician that, it grates when he presumes to lecture me on the seriousness of the matter. Beyond that, though, he seems to be distinguishing between merely bringing up race and “injecting” it formally as a subject for debate in the campaign. We can quibble over how that distinction might be parsed, but here’s a hint: When you broach the subject in the context of an explicit attack on McCain (and conservatives generally, of course), it probably qualifies as “injecting” it.

But what if he simply meant that white Democrats (David Axelrod excepted) aren’t attuned to racial allusions the way minority Democrats are and therefore he wouldn’t have thought to mention it to them? Let’s test that theory. Here’s the clip of Obama from June explicitly making a racial point at a fundraiser in Jacksonville. According to the NYT’s pool report, the audience was mixed-race. Listen for their applause, as they obviously appreciate his point. Then watch the video below that from a few days ago, shot before an audience of mostly white Democrats in Springfield (91% white; the video from Union is here, but it’s harder to hear the crowd reaction because it’s shot outdoors) whom we should, reasonably, never expect to understand. The reaction is … oddly similar. Must be a coincidence. Exit question: Do you find it “troublesome” that McCain defended himself a bit too “eagerly”?

Update:The battle is over, to be resumed whenever John McCain decides to re-inject race into the campaign by defending himself from Obama’s accusations that he’s a racist.

why does he keep talking about what he looks like? who gives a crap? i judge him by the content of his character, which I find lacking, and not by the color of his skin, which i could care less about. hell, i’m irish / polish and I have a better tan than this geek.

race ain’t the issue mr. b. stick to the issues. you know, parting seas and lights shining down from ‘somewhere’ and “change”. the issues, ya know?

I was in union, Missouri which is 98 percent white – a rural, conservative. and what I said was what I think everybody knows, which is that I don’t look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates.

What exactly is white guilt? Is one born with it? Can one have white guilt and belong to some other race? Is it a mental or physical condition? Is this condition a function of race? How exactly does white guilt manifest? Develop? Take over? What about black guilt? Should blacks be feeling guilty too? If not, isn’t that discrimination?

McCain (and his teeam) better get on real message right now…and get the ads and events and, yes, talking points, ready and well in hand so the minute the Olympics end and the Dems have their Leni Riefensthal moment at Mile High Stadium…the GOP can come out swinging and nail this arrogant jive hustler and ride him out of town on a rail.

In the meantime…let Obama just open his mouth time and again, like he has been doing a lot since coming back from his weltbruderlichkeit moment in Berlin, and let him show the stuff of which he is made – – – thin skinned, arrogant, deceitful, dissembling…

“What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me, you know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.” –Barack Obama

I was in union, Missouri which is 98 percent white – a rural, conservative. and what I said was what I think everybody knows, which is that I don’t look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates.

Since Marxists denounce the Bible, white guilt is the new age referential substitute for original sin. Regardless of color, culture, age or gender, everyone suffers from it, whether they believe they do or not. And if you are not chained to Barack’s bus bumper, you are a lost soul cast into hell to burn forever for your callous lack of faith in his fraud.

If this stuff keeps up, are we going to have that first McCain-Obama debate consist of a “yo mamma is so stank…” competition?

Seriously…these wonderfully witty ads…and Obama’s knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory…are all well and good. But, this is August…summer…a couple big distractions coming uip…the Olympics (and possible serious headline grabbing fireworks in Beijing as China tries to get the world to follow the CCP “rules”); the Dem’s convention…already over $10 million in debt, with a sharply reduced venue and program, a lot of lefty and just plain whacko protestors planning on a real Rocky Mountain High to make Grant Park in ’68 look like kindergarten; and McCain may just get lost in the process as the MSM and most alternative outlets focus on anything but McCain.

Yeah, Mac and Obie are tied in the polls…today….

How about the Big Poll? Election Day?

Let’s not get too smug about “The One” doing our work for us…we could still end up in the dumper.

“Stoke” as in being burnt at the stake–but one must always MIRROR the ubertard words in order to translate their newspeak. It is the DNC burning America at the stake, demanding a new Constitution, obstructing justice in Congress and in the Courts, denying the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness aka reliable employment and earning a business profit, allocating tax dollars for illegal aliens and corrupt organized business and crime, absconding with citizens’ social security and medicaid.

The most remarkable thing about this whole affair is that the media is reporting the Obama team’s mutually exclusive talking points with a straight face. Contrary to the most recent spin, Obama’s original statement was a warning to a crowd of voters that John McCain was going to use his race as a means of making voters feel uneasy about him. If there’s a better example of “playing the race card,” which is generally understood to refer to a false claim of victimization on the basis of race, I’d like to see it.

Question: is it race baiting per se when one makes a claim of racial victimization preemptively?

Depends…were they stoned…not yet stoned…really messed up…sorta high…really high…”mien Got ve ist fluggen mit der vogel!”…OD-ing…OD’d…beyond OD’d on the gurney waiting for the notarzthilfer to take them to the morgue?

Update: The battle is over, to be resumed whenever John McCain decides to re-inject race into the campaign by defending himself from Obama’s accusations that he’s a racist.

Weak… McCain should study this entire situation, from every angle, and then bring it up and destroy Obama in their first debate. He’d need to be ready for any excuse, and then just tear him apart as the race peddling POS that he is. Of course he wouldn’t be able to go as far as to point out that Obama wouldn’t be where he is today if it weren’t for the fact that he was black, but I’d like to see people other than Hillary surrogates point that out.

Barack hasn’t a platform; neither has he a coalition of Congressmen and Senators.

Barack has empty promises, CONSISTENTLY PROVEN EMPTY, and endorsements from LOSERS like Kerry and Kennedy who never won the nomination himself OBVIOUSLY, and the Kennedy Klan who have determined THEY WILL RULE THE WORLD VIA BHO.

Just remember, boys and girls, there was no Camelot that involved any Kennedy beyond the MSM fairy tale repeated to mollify America into submissive mode. And what coin do we have pressed from JFK? NASA and The Ugly American as opportunists and do-gooders were seen abroad. Since the Kennedy wedding with the MSM following the assassinations, today’s “Ugly American” is any non-Kennedy.

To rationally endorse THAT is loser mentality. No matter how well you serve a Kennedy, regardless of color you will never rise above slave status. Whatever “public service” is done in the name of Kennedy, it is all self serving and corrupt. Live and learn.

So when Far-Leftist politicians, brown and black, say “we need to start voting for people that look like us, instead of these old white guys in our town”, they’re NOT talking about skin color or race? BWAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaha

With Obama you can’t win. Didn’t mention his race? Well, you were implying it and that’s enough for him to warn his audience about what a racist you are. Defend yourself against Obama’s preemptive accusations of racism? That’s racist too. Put out an ad comparing Obama to Britney and Paris? Talking about white females and a black man is a subliminal appeal to racism!!

I was going to say that dealing with a race-centric candidate like Obama is like trying to get rid of a tar baby but — that’s racist too. I guess the bottom line is just, don’t say anything negative about the Obama because it would be racist.

The most remarkable thing about this whole affair is that the media is reporting the Obama team’s mutually exclusive talking points with a straight face.

I’m most definitely peeved at the MSM for their reporting on this. Obama said, with slight paraphrasing, McCain or those who support him are going to make my race an issue. And the MSM pretends like he didn’t say it, didn’t mean it, when he brought it up 3 times in one day, and has brought it up numerous times in the past. It’s part of his stump speech, for crying out loud.

Here’s my question: Senator Obama. In the movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967), the character played by Sidney Poitier is arguing with his father about marrying a white girl. He says to his father, “… [Y]ou think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man”. Senator, when you look in the mirror, do you see a black man, or a man?

Exactly. Of course Barry made his remarks to a white crowd. What would be the point of playing the race card to a black audience? “White guilt” (which is the whole point of Barry’s emphasizing his race) doesn’t work on black voters.

Look carefully at this video. Compare his facial gestures, speech, and body movement with those of Reverend Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Notice a similarity? How come whenever he is winging it (of the teleprompter) he becomes so home-boy?John McCain should start highlighting those differences.

I think McCain would have been better off ignoring it to begin with saying “I won’t even stoop to the low level race baiting Obama is bringing into his campaign” and moving on. Better late than never I guess.